by Diana Winters
On March 29, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke at the Consumer Federation of America’s National Food Policy Conference about how the agency “can make further improvements in public health by both empowering consumers with information and facilitating industry innovation toward healthier foods that consumers want.” He focused not just on reducing chronic disease, but also on how better information can help to narrow nutrition and health disparities.
As to specific steps, Commissioner Gottlieb discussed: (1) modernizing health claims, (2) re-defining “healthy”, (3) changing the process by which the agency reviews qualified health claims, (4) clarifying the term “natural”, and (5) modernizing the names for ingredients, and standards of identity. He also talked about implementing the new nutrition facts label and menu labeling rules, and working on reducing sodium in foods.
You can watch the speech here.
For an administration committed to deregulation, Commissioner Gottlieb’s stance is surprising, and exciting. The Center for Science in the Public Interest provided FDA with some great preliminary suggestions for moving forward. I’m opening comments for this post – what do you think about Commissioner Gottlieb’s speech? What should or shouldn’t FDA do?
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